Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/98

* SE GOEJE. 74 DEGBEE. still held its own in the faculty of arts. In the foiiileenth fciiturv. wlicu many iinivrrsitios bepm to ln' foumlfJ by virtue of spwial i>n- lihfiio ■;iaiitfil liy i'oiif or Kiii+ieror. Ilir ri^lit to liestow the doctor's degree was often s|iccilic- ally jirttiited, and in some eases was withheld. Lusally. however, the foundinfi of a university implied the rifilit to confer degrees. Both the Pope and the Emperor had the |)ower to confer the honorary title of doctor, or to delegate this power to others, and the doctors thus created were known as doclores btillati. in distinction from the iliicli>n.>< rile promoli, those who had successfully undergone the test of the disputa- tion. A candidate for a degree was reipiired to prepare and read a Latin thesis, which he had to defend against a doctor of the faculty, three opponents s])ecially api)ointed. and, as the phrase ran. 'against all comers.' Disputations, which formed one of the most brilliant and pic- turesque features of niedi:eval university life, continued down to a coniparntivdy late period. In England they w^ere not wliolly done away with until IStiO. 'liie dcgne of bachelor was first brought into use in the thirteenth century, at the University of I'aris and elsewhere, to designate students who had passed certain preliminary tests. In the faculty of philosophy, where the term of study was siiortest. it was of compara- tively little "importance. In Paris, in the lif- tecnth century, the required period was four years in the faculty of philosophy, seven years) "in law, eight in medicine, and fourteen in theology: and in these longer courses the pre- liminary degree conferred certain valuable privi- leges. At the present day neither the bachelor's degree nor the master's is of any special im- portance upon the Continent. In France it is granted in each of the ditTerent faculties, and every candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Science, Law, Jledicine, or Theology nuist first obtain that of Haehelor of Letters, "in Cermany some of the universities bestow the degree of bachelor as a preliminary step to that of doctor; but it carriis with it no siH'cial privilege. DEGuras IX THE L'xiTEn St.vtes. M the pres- ent time there is a regrettable lack of uniformity througlunit the whole system of degrees granted by institutions of learning in the I'nited States. Institutions claiming the right to confer nni- Bibliotheca Gcographorum Arahicorum, 1870- »4) : tile Divan of the poet Moslem Ibn ai- Walid: Hiof/r.ii/i/iic rfr llviiiharl Uuzi/ (trans, by Chauvin. 188:!) : "A Coutriluition to the History of the Gypsies," in proceedings of Koninklijkc Akadcmie van Wclcnschappcn, Eng. trans, by Snyders (London, 1S8C). D^GBAS,' dft'gri'. A wool grease obtained in the priMC'^s of oil-tanning of skins and hides, and also from the waters used in wool-scouring. !>ee Le.vtiikb. DE GRASSE, de gris', Comte. See Gbasse, Com ri; in . DEGREE (in mathematics). See ASGLE; C'Ull I K. DEGREE. In music, the difference of posi- tion or elevation of the notes on the lines and spaces. When notes arc on the same line or space, they are on the same degree, even though one of the" notes should be raised by a sharp, or lowered by a Hat; so c and db are on dilVerent degrees, but c and ej are said to be on the same degree. .Subtracting one from an interval gives the niiml)er of degrees which separates the two notes: thus, a third is separated by two degrees; a fourth, by three, etc. DEGREE. An academic rank or title, originat- ing in the medi:eval universities. Scholastic distinctions of an analogous nature .^eem to have existed in ancient times. The doctors or teachers of the law {iioi.iojidas kaloi) and the scribes of the .lews were products of an organizeil educa- tional scheme, and possessed privileges similar to those conferred by the degree of a teaching doctor in the .Middle Ages. In the latter part of the classical tJreek ])eriod education was well organ- ized into inferior and superior courses, and there evidently existed some recognized proof that such courses had been comi)leted. Greek ediica- tional institutions and practices were imitated by the Romans, and Constantinople, Alexandria, and Rome vied with Athens in the support of schools offering elaborate and definite courses of study, the completion of which carried certain distinctions comparable to the modern degree. Historically, however, there is no connection l>e- tween them. The degree as a university dis- tinction originated at Bologna and Pari.^ during the twelfth century, and. as the titles master yersity degrees have mnltiplied so rapidly within and docti>r imply, signified at first nothing more than a license to teach. Thus at the I'niversity of P-t in point of time, being con- ferred in the twelfth century by the various faculties of the jiniversilies in both Franco and Italy. The title doctor, as an honorary distinc- tion, is not infre<juent at this time, usuall.v coupled with some (|ualifying word: e.g. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor . gelicus. In the thirteenth century the doctor's degree had quite generally replacerl the master's in the faculties of law, meilicine, and thcology, while the master's degrct recent" years, and there is frequently so w iile a disparity in their standards, that the value of a degree is a highly variable quantity. In general, it may he said that the lowest, or bachelor's degree, stands for four years of college work: that the second, or master's degree, is granted after not less than one year of specialized study in a graduate department: and that the doctor's degree is bestowed after two or three years of specialized .study and the (ueparation of a thesis upon some subjei't approved by the faculty. f;ven among the elder universities, however, and those of the highest standards, there is consider- able divergence in the significance of the several degrees. That of ..R,. for instance, no longer stands, as it once did, for a definite amount of Latin and Greek and mathematics. The steady growth of the elective system and the tendency to substitute modern languages for the classics have forced upon the universities the alternative of either changing thi' requirements for the de- gree or else conferring a different degree in place